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The simulation of physical phenomena occurring in chemical reactors requires the description of the kinetics involved in the underlying combustion process. Kinetic models are developed for this purpose. A software package, BlueBellMouse, has been developed to facilitate a deeper automatization and ease of simulation, reduction and optimization of kinetic models. A kinetic model is made of a list o
In recent decades there has been an increasing interest in the indoor environment and its connections with public health. One important topic discussed has been the relation between the moisture in buildings and health.
Cementitious materials, when cast, contain excess water since this is necessary for workability and for flow properties. The pore solutions in cementitious materials, besid
Abstract: The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate ProstaLund Feedback Treatment® (PLFT®) and the CoreTherm® device with regard to biophysics, mechanisms of action, treatment indications, additional techniques, efficacy and safety in the treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The application of two biophysical equations in the PLFT software is explained. The calculations
Politics induce economic agents to organise into special interest groups (SIGs) and act strategically to adjust their economic decisions and to conduct rent-seeking activities in order do improve the situation inflicted on them by policy. This thesis examines, in four essays, different forms of SIG influence on public policy in different institutional contexts. The two first essays examine two rel
Under Indonesia's authoritarian New Order regime of President Suharto, the role envisaged for the small nationalist-Christian coalition the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was that of a pliant state corporatist party, the existence of which was meant to demonstrate the ostensibly democratic character of the regime. From the second half of the 1980s, however, the party began to develop in a criti
An efficient transfer of energy in molecular systems has proven to be of fundamental importance both in nature and industrial applications. The ability of molecules to work together forming collective excitations, so-called excitons, plays a key role in for example the extraordinary fast energy transfer involved in the first steps of photosynthesis. The characterization of excitonic states in conj
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is probably the most common source of treatable disability in the Western world. There are several disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), which have proven to be of therapeutic efficacy in RA, but the lack of a potent, reliable treatment for early RA is a major problem in modern medicine. An obvious line of approach in the quest for better antirheumatic drugs is
Volatile agents are economically and ecologically acceptable only when administered via low-flow systems. However, sevoflurane degrades during low-flow anaesthesia to compound A, and a high carbon dioxide absorber temperature increases this degradation. This thesis suggests that there is a correlation between apparatus dead-space volume and absorber temperature during low- and minimal-flow sevoflu
Most cells are crowded with solutes, enzymes, nucleic acids, structural proteins and membranes. Crowding promotes macromolecular interactions and determines major properties of the cellular environment such as viscosity, diffusion and inhomogeneity. Macromolecular interactions that involve enzymes can affect the kinetic and regulatory properties of these, hence the interactions are part of the met
This thesis presents results from experimental studies of the interfacial behaviour of surfactants and enzymes at model surfaces. The main technique used throughout the work was ellipsometry. Studies of surfactant adsorption in static and dynamic wetting situations were performed to investigate adsorption behaviour close to the three-phase contact line (tpl) during dynamic wetting. It was demonst
The oxidation of Rh, Pd and Pt is studied under conditions ranging from ultra high vacuum to ambient pressures, with emphasis on a complete understanding of the geometry of the various oxide structures found. The investigations use a combination of various experimental methods, including high resolution core level spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, surface x-ray diffraction and scannin
Under aerobic conditions, most yeasts such as Kluyveromyces lactis, prefer the respiratory pathway and some, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae prefer less energy efficient fermentative pathway for their energy metabolism. These two metabolic strategies are also known as Crabtree negative and Crabtree positive respectively, and the evolution of the latter has lately been explained by the “make-accum
ECL cells are endocrine/paracrine cells located in the acid-producing part of the stomach. They are important regulators of gastric acid secretion in the stomach by virtue of their histamine synthesizing and secreting capacity. Histamine in turn stimulates parietal cells to secrete acid. The ECL cell also contains the endocrine polypeptide chromogranin A (CGA) and CGA-derived peptides such as panc
The insertion of Mg2+ into protoporphyrin IX represents the first committed step in the chlorophyll and bacteriochlorophyll biosynthetic pathways. The reaction is catalyzed by the multisubunit enzyme Mg-chelatase, which consists of three subunits, known as I (molecular weight ~40 kDa), D (~70 kDa), and H (~140 kDa). To fully understand this first step in chlorophyll biosynthesis each protein compo
Parkinson's disease is characterized by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, leading to a loss of dopamine in the target structure striatum and development of motor symptoms, such as bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. New experimental treatment strategies for Parkinson's disease are aimed at either preventing the degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons, or a
Due to our own preference for bright light, we tend to forget that many insects are active in very dim light. The reasons for nocturnal activity are most easily seen in tropical areas of the world, where animals face severe competition for food and nocturnal insects are able to forage in a climate of reduced competition and predation. Generally nocturnal insects possess superposition compound eye
Aquaporins, or Major Intrinsic Proteins (MIPs), are integral proteins that facilitate transport of water and other small neutral solutes across biological membranes. They belong to a well conserved and ancient family of proteins, present in all organisms ranging from bacteria to plants and humans. The aquaporin family in plants is large, indicating complex and regulated water transport within the
This thesis concerns the interplay between the lipid phase behaviour, domain formation and the permeability of bilayer membranes. An essential part of this work has been the understanding of the phase transitions and equilibrium properties of lipid bilayers. In this approach experimental results of lipid phase behaviour have been correlated to theoretical descriptions of the systems. An isothermal
This work is not so much about religion as about individual religiosity. It is primarily about people practicing Zen, less about Zen Buddhism as a systematic ideology or philosophy. I set out from the start to try to explore the wide gap between theory and practice in Zen. The more abstract doctrines and idealized norms have had a tendency to dominate works on Zen, confessional as well as scholast
The presence of genes in food, encoding some virulence factors, was studied by PCR, and species of Enterobacteriaceae, associated with food, were studied by the DNA-based methods of TTGE, ribotyping and sequencing. The flora of fresh and chill-stored pork were analysed by a culture-independent approach, using specific amplification of 16S rRNA genes followed by cloning and sequencing. No evidence
